The first two rounds have already been completed in an impressive event which attracted a record 206 men and 103 women. 

A record prize purse of $2.5 million (£1.94 million/€2.26 million) is on offer for the competitions.

It therefore came as something of a surprise to discover that although the FIDE World Cup is described as an "open" tournament and therefore open to male and female players, the women had all entered the parallel FIDE Women's World Cup.

Those in charge are aware that chess faces similar challenges to a number of other sports in ensuring that women feel that chess is for them.

"What we see is the necessity to improve awareness about women in chess," FIDE managing director Dana Reizniece-Ozola told insidethegames.

Amongst the World Cup participants in Baku was China's Ju Wenjun, who retained the Women’s World Championship with victory over her compatriot Lei Tinglie in Shanghai and Chongqing last month.

Reizniece-Ozola witnessed the encounter at first hand, in her role as FIDE Appeals Committee supervisor.

"It is a pity that awareness was quite low about the match, the quality of the chess was super high and this encounter was very interesting to observe," Reizniece-Ozola said.

Reizniece-Ozola, former Latvian Finance Minister, joined FIDE in 2021 and has overseen attempts to increase female involvement and accessibility.

Initiatives have included the launch of the "Queens' Online Chess Festival" for women.

Last year was also designated as "The Year of the Woman in Chess", with other events and activities designed to encourage the spread of the game amongst female players. 

"You cannot expect to grow the numbers of strong players if you do not provide a whole ecosystem, this chess world needs to be welcoming women," Reizniece-Ozola declared.

"Our intention now to show that there are career opportunities in chess, it is not only about being a professional chess player but there are so many other professions you can have in the chess world, arbiter, trainer, fair play officer, photographer, so it is worth entering this beautiful world because it has such a big perspective."

This week in Baku, the photographers of the event have included FIDE women's master Maria Emelianova and Anna Shtourmann.

Indonesian star Irene Sukandar has been a key member of the commentary team for the live stream broadcast.

FIDE has set a target for a third of leading officials to be female but despite the presence of prominent women in the governance of the sport, there is still much work to be done.

"Those girls who trained as professionals, they don’t think about other sports opportunities, because they are raised to become the champions and if they fail, they quit the game. not even considering the other options and alternatives which is a pity," Reizniece-Ozola explained.

The initiatives that started in 2022 have carried on this year.

"We have been quite successful in making the tour around the world, with inspirational lectures, with leadership training just showing them the opportunities, women who have quit chess because of family because of their career opportunities, reconsider and come back, we want to not only attract more women, we want them to stay there," Reizniece-Ozola added.

"There are many countries so many places in the world where it is your family that does decide, and think that chess is not a game for a girl, quite often because there is a lack of knowledge."

Reizniece-Ozola highlighted the FIDE School's Championship launched in Kazakhstan this week as an important component in encouraging girls to play the sport.

"Through schools, you can show the game to kids and you touch the hearts and the brain of their parents, if they see the girl is going in for it and she can play at the same level as the boys, in general what we want to do is to have provide the wider representation of women and girls so it is also one of the reasons I am a great fan of educational chess," Reizniece-Ozola continued.

"Besides all the other things that chess can be used for it is a great tool for acquiring 21st century skills.

"The beauty about the Game is that you don’t have to use it literally as a chess game, you can deconstruct the game and use certain elements of it in teaching mathematics, language and other subjects as well, it is also a great initiative to have to provide equality," Reizniece-Ozola insisted.

In Kenya, refugee centres use "Chess for Protection" to help refugees, many of them young girls, who "learn the game of chess, acquire new important life skills, socialise and release stress."

The initiative, established by FIDE in conjunction with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has conducted online tournaments and courses with instructors.

Some 2,000 youngsters have been helped during the first one and a half years of the scheme.

"A special programme is dedicated to training the girls in chess," Reizniece-Ozola revealed.

"We organised some online leadership course so that they have motivation to aspire for me (sic), so these girls for the first time in their lives, participated in an international tournament."

There are also plans to welcome players who are refugees as part of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest to be held in September 2024.

To date, Hungarian Grand Master Judit Polgár remains the only female player to have mounted a serious challenge for the World Championship.

"I do believe that one day there will be a woman playing the World Chess Championship match, but objectively and statistically you see that there are not that many women who can compete at the level of male players even though chess teaches us that quantity is not the same as quality, even though quantity also matters, In order to raise the excellence you have to have the critical mass," admitted Reizniece-Ozola.

It looks likely to take a little more time, but within a decade, that goal could well become a reality.